1. I’ve had a spectacularly shitty week. Nothing major, just lots of little things that have added up to one big pile of poo.

2. Thank goodness the next week will bring lots of this:

3. I posted what I think is my longest review ever. I don’t expect you to read it because I ramble like a lunatic but just know that Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time (and redefines historical fiction).

4. I was chatting with Jenny* about why Rush Oh! made such a big impression on me and told her that it was partly because when I was quite little (maybe five or six) my dad visited the last whaling station in Australia (at Cheynes Beach, WA and it would have been around 1977). He took some incredible, horrifying photos of whales being stripped of their blubber. I only saw those photos once or twice but they are absolutely burnt on my brain. This afternoon I asked him if he still had the pictures and he dug them out – they were exactly as I remembered (frightening).

Sorry to hear you’ve had a poo week, Kate. But it was so lovely to see you and eat some sweet things and talk books. I have to say your children are amazingly well behaved and pleasant and polite. Makes me sound grandmotherly but ‘they were a delight to be around.’ You can be proud, and I’m sure you are. And fab your dad still has the photos, what a piece of history right there. Also, how about Ms Wood, hey? She is just going to rip through all the awards I reckon. She deserves it, a lovelier woman you couldn’t meet. Really.

I think catching up with you to talk books was the highlight of my week Jenny!
I was thrilled when I saw Wood won that prize – I don’t follow that prize particularly but do like the fact that it focuses on fiction, non-fiction, children etc and has an overall champion! And it could not have gone to a more deserving winner.

Sorry your week was terrible. Hope it picks up for you! Rush Oh! has been on my radar but hearing how much you loved it it putting it higher on my TBR list. A Marshmallow Club? Didn’t know they even existed and didn’t know Season 2 of Serial was out. I’m always late to the party.

I was very, very late to the Serial party (like 3 years late!). I only listened to S1 a few weeks ago (although fortuitously was listening at the time the update podcasts came through). Enjoyed S1 so much I git straight into S2 – it’s very different ( a military story) but produced in the same way. Really interesting.

Thanks – I hate to be a whinger but you know what it’s like when things happen one after the other and you start thinking “Really? What’s next?” (that’s why I had to offset it all with marshmallows and podcasts!).

Sorry to hear that youʻve had a bad week! I hope all the Easter treats and marshmallows can make up for it!

I try not to listen to Twitter when it says something is bad…Iʻm like “You donʻt know me, Twitter. You donʻt know what I like!” Sometimes Twitter is right, Iʻm glad that Twitter was wrong in your case, though!

…and Hot Cross Buns… And salty fish and chips (it’s Good Friday here today).
As I am raising a bunch of heathens, my children identify the Easter holidays by what they will eat – “So today is Hot Cross Buns and fish and chips, then there’s the Easter Egg day….” 😯

We just call them red peppers, green peppers, orange peppers, etc . . . which is not all that descriptive when you consider the variety of hot peppers that are out there too, now that I think of it . . .

Persist with S2 of Serial – at first I was trying to keep all the players straight but by episode 6 I realised it didn’t really matter because you keep the major threads of the story (Ie. did Bowe dessert or not?). I’ve now caught up on all the episodes so am eagerly awaiting the next instalment!